One night last Christmas, a hurler from a Munster county was in Langton’s nightclub in Kilkenny City when he ran in to a Kilkenny player. Drink loosened tongues and dropped inhibitions but when the serious talk turned to hurling, the Kilkenny player got visibly animated. “Did you see the DVD?” he said. “You’d think they had invented hurling.”
The DVD he was referring to was ‘Behind the Banner — the Inside Story of the 2013 All-Ireland hurling champions’. Clare were fantastic champions when emerging with such a young team, while their breakthrough from an era of such Kilkenny dominance added to the public lure and excitement around their success.
Yet all the while, Kilkenny were privately seething at suggestions of a new revolution. Publicly, Kilkenny would never drop their guard and express that anger. They privately store up grievances to provide the venom in their bite and the fuel in their legs. Yet in May, Kilkenny trainer Michael Dempsey hinted at Kilkenny’s attitude towards talk of a New World Order.
“I’m not so sure the style of hurling has changed hugely,” said Dempsey. “Maybe Clare do play more of a running game but the fundamentals are still about winning ball and using it very well. Maybe if you compared Kilkenny from previous All-Irelands, I don’t think there might be as big a difference as people are portraying.”
It was a valid point because Kilkenny played a very precise passing game at stages of the 2011 All-Ireland final to negate Tipperary protecting the D. Yet Kilkenny’s possession management was poor for periods of last year’s championship, especially when reduced to 14 men against Cork.
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Kilkenny have always prided themselves on being able to individually win their own ball but they accepted they had to tweak their style. “Their use of possession has definitely changed,” says Galway’s Fergal Moore. “There is a lot more short passing now. Before, you would have expected a long ball but there is an extra pass coming and an extra run from the forward inside, which makes it harder to defend against.”
Clare’s style was new but it was also in sync with how hurling had evolved over the last decade. In that time, the game had never undergone as much radical thinking and introspection. Ultimately, Kilkenny dictated that path by setting a standard and evolving a way of playing that challenged all of their rivals to imitate or radically out-think them. After last season though, Kilkenny had to think harder themselves. “You see Kilkenny handpassing and working the ball out of defence now,” says Limerick’s Gavin O’Mahony. “You never saw them doing that before.”
There has also been a noticeable alteration to their tactical shape. Kilkenny were always the masters at protecting their defence but they have been offering even more of a protective shield to the centre of their defence since the drawn Galway game. For the replay, Brian Cody picked three natural defenders in midfield and the half-forward line.
“They picked different personnel in different positions and their natural game brought a different dimension,” says Moore. “You see forwards playing a different role now but Kilkenny have always been very tactically astute and their game management is excellent. Whatever is needed during a game to win it, they can change to do it.”
Brendan Cummins played against Kilkenny for long enough to understand their tactical nuances and mindset, and he doesn’t notice any major structural differences. “They have just put more energy and work rate in the middle third, which allows them to rotate their forwards every five or 10 minutes,” says Cummins. “That allows them to protect Brian Hogan but it’s like a tug of war with Kilkenny now.
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“There is a technique in tug-of-war whereby you can take all the other team’s strength away by just holding your ground. You know when they are weakened and then you pounce and pull harder. That is what Kilkenny are doing.”
Most teams funnel bodies back when the opposition are attacking but Kilkenny took it to another level when they got ahead of Limerick. They erected a wall across midfield and were effectively playing with one forward up top.
“I never played a game where the opposition played so defensively,” says O’Mahony. “The conditions were desperate but Kilkenny were sitting back like Donegal when they got ahead. We were trying to hit scores from distance but it was very difficult with the weather conditions. It’s nearly gone like a game of chess with Kilkenny now. You’re hoping that you can pick off a couple of points from long range to put pressure on them and make them come back up the field. The weather was a factor against us but Kilkenny’s tactics won’t be any different if they get ahead again on Sunday. They have it perfected.” Since the first half of their opening league game against Clare, when he made 17 plays, mostly in a withdrawn role, it was obvious Colin Fennelly would play a key part in a tweaked system. Fennelly got man-of-the-match against Limerick when sniping four points but the most important of his 16 plays was a goal-saving flick outside the Kilkenny square.
Limerick made a decision to allow Fennelly wander and leave Wayne McNamara protecting their full-back line to try and stop goals. “Kilkenny are trying to avoid centre-backs at all costs,” says former Dublin manager Anthony Daly.
“Tony Kelly had a roving role at centre-forward with Clare last year but Podge [Collins] filled that position. Now, Fennelly plays deep, [Eoin] Larkin has a free role to go wherever and they often leave just one forward inside. You’d wonder was a lot of it designed to counter Clare’s style.”
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Dublin were hammered for their tactics in the Leinster final but their game plan became irrelevant when they lost the physical battle so decisively. That gave Kilkenny the platform to build their attacks, contaminate Dublin’s supply, and impose their will on the Dublin forwards.
Game plans and styles have become a hugely important parts of hurling’s lexicon now. Different teams have come with different tactics, adding a new splash of colour onto an expanding tactical canvas. Kilkenny have daubed their paint onto the cloth this summer but their most distinguishable colours are still black and white.
“Kilkenny use possession better now, their forwards are playing a different role but they still have that same savage hunger and desire,” says Dublin captain Johnny McCaffrey. “Given all they’ve won, it’s remarkable how they can keep pushing themselves onto another level.”
Savage hunger and desire has always been Kilkenny’s core game plan. Black and white. The bottom line.